Public commenter urges Anderson 01 to resist state-driven ban on personal devices

A public commenter, Casey De, used the meeting’s public-comment period to press the board to resist what she described as a state-directed ban on personal electronic devices and to question whether state funding was being conditioned on policy adoption.

"My concern comes from an overall tyrannical takeover of our federal government right now…this Marxist movement for the takeover from the system from within," Casey De said, later adding she was "triggered to see that the board had on the agenda that they were going to have a second reading of eight policies." She told the board she had discussed the matter with district staff and claimed the state had circulated a memorandum urging a district-level policy prohibiting personal electronic communication devices during the day.

De cited language she said was in a state budget proviso that conditions state classroom funds on adopting a State Board–adopted policy that "prohibits access to personal electronic communication devices by students during the day." She urged the board to "push back on this" and characterized the requirement as a form of extortion if state funding would be withheld.

Administration later said the group of second-reading policies did not have to be approved immediately and recommended moving them to the next month to allow time for more information and feedback from the state board and legislators. "None of these policies are required to be approved at this time; move those to the next month," an administration presenter said in the administration report.

No policy vote or adoption occurred at the meeting; administration recommended deferring second readings to allow additional review and to collect feedback from the State Board and legislators.